It is well known that hair waving and straightening compositions containing thioglycolate as the reducing agent are very effective in the waving and straightening of hair. For example, when used in hair waving compositions, thioglycolate compounds give excellent curl/tightness characteristics to the hair. Such compositions have had substantial commercial acceptance. Illustrative of such compositions are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,717,228 to Brown; U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,165 to Patel, et al; U.S. Pat. No. 2,631,965 to Schnell; U.S. Pat. No. 2,615,828 to Haefele; U.S. Pat. No. 2,836,185 to Hervey; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,071,515 to Wehr.
The thioglycolate hair waving and straightening compositions, however, have certain drawbacks associated therewith. First of all such compositions have a very unpleasant odor and, therefore, are troublesome to the consumer for use at home. Also, if used improperly on the hair or too often, such compositions present a possible risk of hair damage because of their effect on the physical properties of hair.
Another type of hair waving and straightening compositions which have had substantial commercial acceptance are those hair treating compositions containing sulfite and bisulfite salts (e.g. ammonium or alkali metal like sodium salts) as the reducing agent. For convenience sake, such compositions will be referred to herein as the sulfite/bisulfite systems.
While the sulfite/bisulfite systems do not have the unpleasant odor associated with the thioglyocolate systems, when used for waving hair, they do not impart to the hair the same "curl/tightness" imparted by the thioglycolate systems. Examples of known sulfite/bisulfite systems are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,836,185 to Hervey; U.S. Pat. No. 3,864,476 to Altieri; U.S. Pat. No. 4,296,764 to Pallone et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,808 to Sokol, Belgian patent 895,854 and Belgian patent 892.348.
In the U.S. Sokol patent there is disclosed a hair straightening composition (Example 1) containing a bisulfite reducing system containing urea and a cationic quaternary polymer as a hair conditioner. In Sokol, the cationic resin is disclosed as a conditioning agent and not as an essential ingredient which will promote or enhance permanent waving or hair straightening.